Fig. 7From: Vitamin D deficiency exacerbates bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis partially through aggravating TGF-β/Smad2/3-mediated epithelial-mesenchymal transitionCyp27b1 gene knockout aggravates BLM-induced activation of TGF-β/Smad3 in the lungs. All animals were fed with standard fodder. All animals except controls were injected with BLM (1.5 mg/kg) through the trachea. All animals were sacrificed 2 weeks after BLM. Phosphorylated Smad2 and Smad3 were detected using Western blot. a Representative gels for p-Smad2, p-Smad3 and β-actin. Quantitative analysis of scanning densitometry for b p-Smad2 and c p-Smad3 were performed. Data were expressed as means ± SEM (N = 6). **P < 0.01, *P < 0.05Back to article page